Camping for Girls: Peeing Outside
You’re on a camping trip. The sunset was stunning and for the first time in months you were able to watch it. Out here in the woods, the peaceful evening settles over you as you and your friends sit around a camp fire exchanging childhood memories, silly ghost stories and a few cold beers from the cooler someone was smart enough to remember. It’s perfect, you’re in paradise, not even the mosquitoes could ruin your night. Then…nature calls. Suddenly, with a crushing finality, your night is ruined. Your stomach feels bloated and uncomfortable. Your jeans start to feel tight over your bladder. There’s no way you can laugh at one more joke without committing an embarrassing blunder. What now?
The fine woodsy gentlemen reading this may not quite understand the discomfort and uncertainty that marked the last half of the above paragraph but, undoubtedly, all the ladies know exactly what I mean. When you don’t have a handy aiming device built right in by good old Mother Nature, you’re pretty much screwed in this department. Kind of feels like we got the short end of the stick. Ladies, I am here to tell you that the world does not end when your bladder is full! In fact, below are seven ways for girls to pee outside while handling the situation with some measure of dignity….some.
How to Pee Outside: For Girls
Before You Pee:
- Find a secluded spot to do your business.
- Make sure your spot is at least 200 feet away from flowing water. No one wants to drink that.
- Ensure you are not on a slope where the liquid lands on the ground but then flows towards your shoes. Another great way to prevent this is to do your business on ground that absorbs (ie. grass or soft soil etc). The soft ground will absorb the liquid rather than hard ground (ie.cement or very dry dirt) which will repel the liquid causing it to splat onto your legs and shoes.
- Bring toilet paper with you (leaves will not feel good); and bring a plastic bag because you can’t leave your wipes on the ground.
- When relieving yourself in the woods, never let your pants drop past your knees. If you push them down to your ankles you’ll have to explain the wet spot to your friends.
Peeing Positions:
The Squat
The only unassisted way to pee in the woods. If you have thighs of steel this one’s for you. It requires you to hold the squat position while you are relieving and wiping, so it takes some serious muscle. Move you feet apart to find a good balance, pull your pants down but not past your knees. Crouch/ squat down as if you are sitting in a very low chair. Use one hand to pull your pants which are around your knees towards your knee caps to keep everything out of the line of fire. Make sure you keep your bottom out and low. Just think of yourself as sitting on a very low chair or stool. This position may seem difficult at first but with enough practice it can be mastered. If you aren’t quite buff enough, read on.
The Buddy System
This one is not for the meek. To pull this one off you need a friend who has seen you pee, or who is willing to try anything once. The two of you stand face to face and lock hands. Then lean away from each other and squat so that your thighs are parallel to the ground. Now you can both go at once, but don’t let go, or you are certain to lose your friend.
The Throne
It turns out Mother Nature did provide some assistance. Press your back against a tree, so that your thighs are parallel to the ground. Make sure your feet are squarely planted on the ground – you do not want to fall! You may begin to feel like you’re sitting on an imaginary throne at this point. Extra points if you’re on a hill, facing up, so that the liquid runs away from your shoes. Otherwise, be cautious.
The Tripod
This is basically the buddy system, but with a tree! One more reason to hug a tree! Find a tree with a thinner trunk (but not a sapling that may not support you) and grip it tightly. Your feet should be at the base of the tree. Stick your bottom out and go.
The Assist
If you have the good luck of finding a fallen log or a tree stump, you can basically sit down on it. Scoot forward as far as you can without falling off and let loose. Just make sure you keep your legs and feet out of the way and make sure you pull your pants in the direction away from you.
The Products for Peeing Outside
There are a few different products on the market that range from $8-$20. The idea is that they are a simulated aimer. The appendage we were not granted when it came time to grant appendages. It looks kind of like a sports cup with a straw coming out of it. It can be purchased from these fine retailers: pStyle
Now you, too, can feel free in the great outdoors. Good luck!
For more tips on girls camping read Girl’s Guide to Surviving Your First Camping Trip. After all, nature is beautiful but nature is not always the kindest when it comes to our appearance.
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Author: A.R. Colton
Edited by: CampTrip.com
Egad. All you have to do is find a log, pull down your pants, sit on its edge of it and pee. The water will flow down, your clothes will stay dry, and passersby will think a dog did it.
i totally agree to this article. peeing can be a nightmare for girls when outdoors. appreciate the article. totally eases up peeing outside.
My advice: learn to pee standing. Here’s how:
Step 1: Stand facing downhill or stand on a flat surface.
Step 2: If wearing zippered pants, unzip fly and take crotch of underwear to side. If wearing pants with an elastic waist, lower the waist of underwear and pants in front (don’t pull pants all the way down). If wearing a skirt (this is recommended for beginners), lift skirt in front and either lower waistband of underwear or pull crotch of underwear to side.
Step 3: Obviously, you want to keep your undergarments dry along with the rest of yourself. Try and be aware that your pee isn’t coming out with too much force, you don’t want it to spray back at you. Also be careful that you pee with enough force, otherwise it will just dribble down your leg which is never a good thing.
Love this post, it reminds me of when my wife and I first started dating and she was petrified of going to the bathroom outside!
After “coaching” her along through the years, she has become a highly skilled “pee’er”!!!
She perfers peing in the “bushes” to using public restrooms now!
I don’t think it matters if your a guy or gal, in the middle of the night when nature calls it sucks to have to walk out into the dark cold night and pee.
When I have to pee outside I never pee on hard surfaces like cement. It makes a splatter that gets your shoes and ankles wet. If available I pee on low growing flowers or into a clump of grass that takes out the splatter. If there is water such as a creek I always pee in the water. No splatter when peeing in water
TP is a must too. I don’t care for damp panties.
Hope this helps out. Kelly
When I have to pee outside I prefer to pee on small flowers that grow just a few inches tall or into a clump of grass. Peeing on the flowers or in the grass takes the splatter out. If there is water available I’ll pee in the water. This too takes out the splatter and one dosn’t have to worry about where the pee is going to go.
Something to wipe with is a must. I keep a pocket pack of Kleenex in my purse and also in my jacket pocket.
Peeing on a boat with no toilet is another challenge. I get my TP then with my back to the side of the boat I slip my jeans/shorts and panties to my knees. I sit on the side of the boat with my rear over the water. Don’t have your rear over the side any further than necessary to pee in the water. After I’m finished I wipe and drop my TP in the water. As I stand up I pull my panties up followed by my jeans/shorts. Be sure to hold on to the boat so you don’t fall ovewr the side if the boat rocks.
That’s nasty, Kellygirl, both dropping your used TP in the water and peeing in the streams and lakes that the rest of your fellow campers are filtering drinking water from. We do not want to drink your urine!! In Washington state, there are these things called “leave no trace principles” involving things like minimum requirements on footage from water sources that you’re allowed to wash, pee, etc. The only people who disregard the requirements are people who don’t care about the state of their wilderness. People who would rather spread disease and bacteria downstream, rather than risk being uncoordinated enough to pee on themselves…
To Ashley:
You must not know what papermills and other industries dump in the rivers. There are several papermills and the river is a deep bluish-green until the mill waste goes in the water. The river then turns a dark brown like a bazillon gallons of coffee or Coca-Cola were dumped there. I don’t think my pee and TP is much of a problem compared to that.
Kelly
This issue really puts a lot of girls from going outdoors. Most common thing I hear from my friends, is “where will I go to the toilet”. It definitely takes practice that is for sure!!
My most popular story on my blog is about the call of nature for women (which you mentioned a couple of tools to help)….
Check out this if you like:
http://gocampingaustralia.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/how-to-pee-in-great-outdoors.html
I agree with Jacqueline. I pee standing up. I go camping lots and I NEVER want to risk any critters up my legs (or worse) so I pee standing up.
I do make my own peeing aimer out of a water bottle that allows me to pee into the bottle and let my pee out of the neck of the bottle.
You can all so buy a potty for little kids put it in a backpack and use it just take the bowl out the set it on the grownd then let loose.
You can all so buy a potty for little kids put it in a backpack and use it just take the bowl out the set it on the grownd then let loose then just put it back in your backpack. 🙂
I love to go on long walks. Sometimes it is quite difficult to find somewhere to pee privately.
My method is very simple and can be done almost anywhere, usually without anyone knowing what you are doing.
I always wear a short mini skirt, usually black, although I have a number of immitation leather skirts which are even better. I never wear any knickers underneath, and when I need to pee I just stand with my legs together and let go. The pee runs down between my legs and doesn’t splash.
I have done this at all kinds of events, often in crowds and no one has been aware of it. I find that my legs soon dry off in the breeze.
This is always much better than long queues and smelly toilets.
i have never peed in the woods before but I’ll have to keep this in mind also for beginners where do you recommend going
I learned to pee standing, but it came with a fair amount of practice. You can’t just pull your pants to the side and go if you’re wearing anything more restrictive than regular panties. Definitely can’t pee through an open fly. That being said, you’ll need both your hands to stretch your labia apart to make sure your pee hole is not only unobstructed but it’s the right shape to be able to direct your stream. It’s not a superpower it just takes a bit of effort to find that sweet spot.
That being said, when I was a little girl growing up, we used to go camping all the time and whenever me or any of my sisters had to pee, we used to just run to dad who would pick us up by our thighs and hold us out in the air with our legs sticking out sideways and literally made us piss into the wind.
Just a bit older in my teen years when we were too heavy to be lifted, we all used to have to run to our brother who would begrudgingly wall-sit with his legs slightly apart against a sturdy tree to make a makeshift toilet. It was as comfortable as if not more comfortable than a cold toilet seat. Just that we had to take off at least one pant leg if not take everything on our bottom half off completely and expose ourselves for all of Mother Nature to see, because you were in a straddle position with your thighs higher than your pee hole and your labia fully stretched out so there’d be no room for error and a straight stream with no piss running down your leg afterwards. Heck, half the time I didn’t even use toilet paper, I just wiped on the thigh I was sitting on as I dismounted and that was that.
Seems like common sense to me but the comments here suggest nobody else seems to know any of this.
Nonsense. Piss should never be wiped. If I piss outside, I do it on my husband’s dick, because it turns him on. Then he eats me out.
Naomi, your brother was Lucky! Kelly girl, piss shouldnt be wiped.
Don’t throw your TP in the water. It pollutes and is just plain nasty!!!
Bingo!!! You nailed it.
I think Naomi had the best idea, Especially if among a group of close friends, everybody has to go!
might as well enjoy it according to the TP ads.. The standing position, if no clothes i n the way is simple and certain. and if night shouldn’t cause any problems. If day, and you are shy, find a bush or turn your back.I have never seen many that shy in the wilderness, and no reason to be.
I think boys have an unfair advantage. All they have to do is either turn around or find a tree. Also when they pee in the toilet they drip drip drip and we have to sit in it and its disgusting. I wish I had a nature stick too. 🙁
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